Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biographical Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Share this: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biographical Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was born on March 27, 1845, at Lennep in the Lower Rhine Province of Germany, as the only child of a merchant in, and manufacturer of, cloth. His mother was Charlotte Constanze Frowein of Amsterdam, a member of an old Lennep family which had settled in Amsterdam. When he was three years old, his family moved to Apeldoorn in The Netherlands, where he went to the Institute of Martinus Herman van Doorn, a boarding school. He did not show any special aptitude, but showed a love of nature and was fond of roaming in the open country and forests. He was especially apt at making mechanical contrivances, a characteristic which remained with him also in later life. In 1862 he entered a technical school at Utrecht, where he was however unfairly expelled, accused of having produced a caricature of one of the teachers, which was in fact done by someone else.

He then entered the University of Utrecht in 1865 to study physics. Not having attained the credentials required for a regular student, and hearing that he could enter the Polytechnic at Zurich by passing its examination, he passed this and began studies there as a student of mechanical engineering. He attended the lectures given by Clausius and also worked in the laboratory of Kundt. Both Kundt and Clausius exerted great influence on his development. In 1869 he graduated Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, was appointed assistant to Kundt and went with him to Würzburg in the same year, and three years later to Strasbourg. In 1874 he qualified as Lecturer at Strasbourg University and in 1875 he was appointed Professor in the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim in Württemberg. In 1876 he returned to Strasbourg as Professor of Physics, but three years later he accepted the invitation to the Chair of Physics in the University of Giessen.

After having declined invitations to similar positions in the Universities of Jena (1886) and Utrecht (1888), he accepted it from the University of Würzburg (1888), where he succeeded Kohlrausch and found among his colleagues Helmholtz and Lorenz. In 1899 he declined an offer to the Chair of Physics in the University of Leipzig, but in 1900 he accepted it in the University of Munich, by special request of the Bavarian government, as successor of E. Lommel. Here he remained for the rest of his life, although he was offered, but declined, the Presidency of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt at Berlin and the Chair of Physics of the Berlin Academy. Röntgen's first work was published in 1870, dealing with the specific heats of gases, followed a few years later by a paper on the thermal conductivity of crystals.

Among other problems he studied were the electrical and other characteristics of quartz; the influence of pressure on the refractive indices of various fluids; the modification of the planes of polarised light by electromagnetic influences; the variations in the functions of the temperature and the compressibility of water and other fluids; the phenomena accompanying the spreading of oil drops on water. Röntgen's name, however, is chiefly associated with his discovery of the rays that he called X-rays. In 1895 he was studying the phenomena accompanying the passage of an electric current through a gas of extremely low pressure. Previous work in this field had already been carried out by J. Plucker (1801-1868), J. W. Hittorf (1824-1914), C. F. Varley (1828-1883), E. Goldstein (1850-1931), Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), H. Hertz (1857-1894) and Ph.

von Lenard (1862-1947), and by the work of these scientists the properties of cathode rays - the name given by Goldstein to the electric current established in highly rarefied gases by the very high tension electricity generated by Ruhmkorff's induction coil - had become well known. Röntgen's work on cathode rays led him, however, to the discovery of a new and different kind of rays. On the evening of November 8, 1895, he found that, if the discharge tube is enclosed in a sealed, thick black carton to exclude all light, and if he worked in a dark room, a paper plate covered on one side with barium platinocyanide placed in the path of the rays became fluorescent even when it was as far as two metres from the discharge tube. During subsequent experiments he found that objects of different thicknesses interposed in the path of the rays showed variable transparency to them when recorded on a photographic plate.

When he immobilised for some moments the hand of his wife in the path of the rays over a photographic plate, he observed after development of the plate an image of his wife's hand which showed the shadows thrown by the bones of her hand and that of a ring she was wearing, surrounded by the penumbra of the flesh, which was more permeable to the rays and therefore threw a fainter shadow. This was the first "röntgenogram" ever taken. In further experiments, Röntgen showed that the new rays are produced by the impact of cathode rays on a material object. Because their nature was then unknown, he gave them the name X-rays. Later, Max von Laue and his pupils showed that they are of the same electromagnetic nature as light, but differ from it only in the higher frequency of their vibration. Numerous honours were showered upon him. In several cities, streets were named after him, and a complete list of Prizes, Medals, honorary doctorates, honorary and corresponding memberships of learned societies in Germany as well as abroad, and other honours would fill a whole page of this book.

In spite of all this, Röntgen retained the characteristic of a strikingly modest and reticent man. Throughout his life he retained his love of nature and outdoor occupations. Many vacations were spent at his summer home at Weilheim, at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, where he entertained his friends and went on many expeditions into the mountains. He was a great mountaineer and more than once got into dangerous situations. Amiable and courteous by nature, he was always understanding the views and difficulties of others. He was always shy of having an assistant, and preferred to work alone. Much of the apparatus he used was built by himself with great ingenuity and experimental skill. Röntgen married Anna Bertha Ludwig of Zürich, whom he had met in the café run by her father. She was a niece of the poet Otto Ludwig. They married in 1872 in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. They had no children, but in 1887 adopted Josephine Bertha Ludwig, then aged 6, daughter of Mrs. Röntgen's only brother.

Four years after his wife, Röntgen died at Munich on February 10, 1923, from carcinoma of the intestine. From Nobel Lectures , Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. TheScienceClassroom - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen References He influenced the work of men like Nikola Tesla , the true inventor of the radio. He inspired women like Marie Curie , the world's most famous scientist, to use his discoveries for the greater good of science. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (it can also be spelled Roentgen) was a Prussian (German) physicist most famous for being the first person to take x-ray photographs. He was credited to be the man that discovered these rays of electromagnetic radiation in the first place, and that is why X-rays can also be formerly known as Röntgen radiation.

In addition, the unit that is used to measure these rays, roentgen, is named after him as well. [ ³ ] This is what made him the first person ever to receive a Nobel Prize in the area of Physics for this type of work. However, he also studied in the areas of elasticity, specific heats in gases and crystals, piezoelectricity, and much more. [ ¹ ] Without his main interest in the unique radiation of x-rays and fluorescence, however, medical science today would not be. It would be nearly impossible to determine fractures in a bone or discover signs of pneumonia by examining x-rays of the lungs, or even get proper dental health care because there would not be a way to clearly look at one's teeth in their skull and determine what needs to be fixed. Overall, his serendipitous discovery of how specific things could reflect to light due to unknown radiation (hence the term X-rays) may have very well saved millions of lives and time on our Earth today.

Insight and Influences Image courtesy of Medcyclopaedia Born in Lennep, Prussia on Thursday, March 27th, 1845, Röntgen was born to a family consisting of a reserved, amiable farmer of a father and a mother of a modest and simple lifestyle. Being an only child, his parents' characteristics heavily influenced him through his early years, keeping him happy and simple-minded even as he was surrounded by early European revolution (inspired by the French Revolution that began in 1848) during his childhood. [ ² ] During that time, Prussia was considered one of many German states that, along with others, was to "be returned to the restored German Confederation". [ ⁴ ] Since there was much chaos, Röntgen’s family sold their house and they emigrated to Apeldoorn, located in The Netherlands. The main reason for this was that his mother was of Dutch origin, and they felt it would be safe there. He went into a private boarding school in Apeldoorn shortly after finishing primary school and ultimately got expelled due to a childish prank he may not have been at fault for.

The story goes that one of Wilhelm's classmates had drawn a cartoon of their teacher on the firescreen, and the teacher was angered by it upon discovering it. The teacher furiously asked Röntgen to name the culprit, and when Wilhelm did not do as he was asked, he was quickly expelled from the school. [ ³ ] Regardless, he continued with his studies at home as advised by some of his father's friends, so he could prepare himself for the examination he would have to take to get into a university. Sadly, one of the people who examined him during one of these tests was one of the faculty members that had expelled him, and he was turned away. [ ⁵ ] Later in 1862, however, he enrolled at the Utrech Technical School, which was a private area that prepared students for a tech high school. The school did this by offering the kids to take a two-year course. Three years later, Röntgen became enrolled as a visiting student in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Utrech, and in November of that year (1865) he moved to Zürich, Switzerland.

Apparently, in the Polytechnic of Zürich, students who lacked a school leaving diploma could be accepted. Röntgen wasted no time in enrolling into the school. While he was studying in Zürich, he focused on mechanical engineering with successful results. He received a diploma in that area of study, but he decided to eagerly continue his studies. He also began to cooperate with August Kundt, a professor in the area of Physics at only 29 years old. At the young age of 24, Röntgen soon became to be his close assistant in the Department of Experimental Physics. On June 12, 1869, Röntgen received his Ph. D degree from the University of Zürich. Only a year later, Kundt left to be Chair of Physics at the University of Würzburg, and Röntgen followed close behind. [⁵] Afterwards, he was a professor of Physics at multiple universities. Not only was he at Würzburg, but his progression also led him to Geissen (1879-1888) and Munich (1900-1920).

Würzburg, however, was almost a stopping point for him. According to a Bavarian law of the time, Röntgen was unable to continue with his studies for two main reasons: he lacked a leaving-school certificate, and he lacked sufficient study in these areas (even though Kundt had tried to train him on his behalf as best as he could, it appeared that it was not enough). However, in 1872, Kundt was invited to the German University of Strassbourg (it is now located in France). Kundt took his assistant with him to the newly-founded university, and they found that this university actually helped Röntgen more with his scientific studies and career. They appointed Röntgen to the title of "Privat- Dozent" and he became a lecturer at this university. [ ⁵ ] Major Contributions Image courtesy of Wired It was in 1895, however, that Röntgen was able to put his years of physics studies into amazing use. When working with a vacuum tube covered in ebony-colored paper whilst he worked in a dark room, he began to study some electrical paths of rays.

He did this by placing an induction coil in the tube and allowing the current to run through so he could examine the rays' paths. He watched the rays with curiosity and was amazed to find that, even though everything was dark in the room, one of the screens nearby which contained fluorescent material was glowing, illuminated by these rays. Now truly interested, he began testing to see if other objects could show these same results. Sure enough, he discovered that multiple objects reacted to these rays of light. Later, he wondered: why not put a photographic plate instead of a screen? Upon using a plate instead of the previous screen, he also discovered that skin and bones would react as well, the skin appearing more translucent while the bones appeared a darker shade in the photo that developed. [ ⁶ ] Only a year later, the Glasgow Royal Infirmary (one of the very first departments dedicated to radiology) set up an x-ray department. The head of this department used Röntgen’s discovery to start producing more amazing x-rays. One doctor that year even used this new technology to conclude the diagnosis of a needle in a woman's hand- the first doctor ever to do that.

Following shortly after that, x-rays began to be used excitedly for other things like the first World War, used eagerly to treat fighting soldiers. The way that this unknown radiation works, however, is truly remarkable. He was able to serendipitously discover such a fantastic new way of seeing the world, and still today, some cannot quite wrap their head around how this was managed. In reality, the way that x-radiation can be seen on a photograph is not at all that complicated. In order to understand, one must visualize the electromagnetic spectrum. It shows wavelengths, that much is true, and it is seen in that broad spectrum that as these wavelengths begin to decrease in size, their energy builds. These wavelengths belong to the x-ray category. However, it seems that when spoken of, the wavelengths of x-rays are never truly mentioned. This is mostly due to two very significant reasons: x-rays' wavelengths are considerably small, and the light "tends to act more like a particle than a wave." [ ⁷ ] Now, in order to make it to where one can see the x-rays, these light particles (photons) need to be sent out into some metallic surface for them to appear.

Also, they have to be projected in a concentrated beam of light- this way, upon collision, the metallic surface and the projected charged electrons give out an astounding amount of electromagnetic radiation which, Röntgen discovered, was odd and unknown to him. This is why he nicknamed them x-rays, and much to his dismay, the name stuck. However, the metallic surface isn't the only thing required. There is also a second sheet, used as a filter, and this sheet is what keeps the rays from scattering and making the final picture blurry. When light is shot through these filters, the clear images of some specific objects can be seen- bones, metals, specific amounts of tissue in a body, etc. [ ⁸ ] One must be careful when taking x-rays repeatedly, though. It has been proven that "frequent exposure to x-rays can be harmful". Therefore in today's technology, "special measures are taken" to be absolutely sure that both the patient and doctor will be safe during the x-ray examination. [ ⁶ ] Affects and Effects Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen proved to become an influence in many people’s lives, including our very own.

Upon the revolutionary discovery of x-rays, thousands around the world began to use the fresh new technology, saving multiple lives and finding hidden diseases that could not have been discovered before. Even Nikola Tesla , one of the world’s most amazing scientists, used this new research to develop a series of pictures using a form of x-radiation of his own design. Although both scientists appeared with their studies around the same era, Tesla did not once claim the design to truly be his. Because of this, Röntgen congratulated him on his achievement with the utmost respect. Tesla later wrote Röntgen’s name on one of his x-ray files. [ ⁹ ] Nikola Tesla was not the only one that was affected by the Prussian physicist's work. Two different physicists, both in France during the period of early 1896, took his work and established even more data from it. Henry Bequerel, much like Röntgen himself, accidentally stumbled upon the fact that something else would give off rays whilst in a dark room. Uranium compounds, he discovered, let off these interesting rays that would end up clouding a photographic plate.

The discovery, however, did not gain much attention of the media, who was too focused on Röntgen's marvelous x-rays at the time. Marie Curie , however, the second French physicist, took Bequerel's work even further. Using a device that her husband and her brother had made 15 years prior, she was able to study the Uranium compounds and how they would send out rays. Eventually, her studies came to the conclusion that yes, Uranium was able to emit radiation regardless of its state, so a hypothesis came into play. She hypothesized that maybe the radiation came from somewhere deeper in the atom, and this shocked the science world, since it had been believed for centuries that the atom was the main part of everything and could not be broken down. Curie strengthened this hypothesis by finding that thorium compounds also emitted these radiations, and in order to describe these behaviors she invented the word radioactivity. [ ¹¹ ] Thus, in theory, without Röntgen, we may not have had a clue about the true nature of the atom or a word to describe the emission of rays. However, his work not only interested scientists but town officials and other societies.

Roentgen Street was named after him and he received numerous prizes, medals, and awards. He was the first person ever to win a Nobel Prize in the area of Physics, after all. Not only that, but in 2004, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named the element of Roentgenium (Rg) after him. [ ¹⁰ ] Röntgen did not share the prizes alone through most of his career. In 1872, he married Anna Bertha Ludwig, having met her at a local café which happened to be run by her father. [ ² ] It was not new that Anna was stepping into a family that would bear a famous name- she was already the cousin of Otto Ludwig, a famous poet of the time. They had no children that would continue their famous legacy, but they did adopt. They adopted Josephine Bertha Ludwig, the 6-year old daughter of Anna's brother. Mrs. Röntgen died in 1919, however.

The Things He Left Behind Image courtesy of OneShoeDiaries Without the amazing accidental discovery that Wilhelm Röntgen experienced on that early November day, the world today would definitely not be as it is now, especially as far as medical means. Without the discovery of x-rays and how to take photographs of these rays, millions of people could have been falsely diagnosed and died because there would not have been a way to see exactly what was wrong. If somebody came into a dentist's office complaining about a toothache, without x-rays, their assistants would not have been able to completely discover the cause of the pain and correctly diagnose this person, possibly giving them something that may not even help them at all, therefore wasting money and time whilst doing so. On that note, if somebody entered an emergency room with an injured limb, doctors could not see that maybe it was a fractured bone and possibly do something to fix it. Not only that, but without his work, technology would not have continued to advance and progress so we could be able to make better machinery. After Röntgen's revelation on the topic of x-rays and what one could do with them, the world began to immediately develop more complex equipment.

Among some of the things that came along approximately seventy years after his discovery were "higher speed imaging systems, electronic amplification devices, scintillation camera, ultrasonographic (US) devices, advances high capacity x-ray tubes, and rapid film processors." As decades have gone by, however, our computers and their ability to work with much higher capacity levels have matured. Therefore, these early developments have also given us the ability to create new, useful, life-saving instruments for the medical field. CT scans and MRIs are just two examples of such instruments. [ ¹² ] He will also be forever known as the first physicist ever to be honored with a Nobel Prize in the area of Physics. None before him had achieved this award, and so now that it was known that one could gain a prize in that area, it inspired multiple generations of physicists and scientists to create work that would be worthy of such an honor. Now inspiring physicists had more of a motivation to continue their research and change the world. So influentual was he to the world that, in memory of his fabulous work, even his home received quite an honor.

His home in Lennep, Prussia was turned into a museum, where visitors can go take a walk through and see the environment in which he grew up in. [ ¹³ ] That is not the only way this humble man gained an impact on the world. People throughout the Earth could still see him, and all they had to do was mail letters. This is because Wilhelm Röntgen's face appeared on a stamp circa the middle 1900s. Also, in a recent poll held in London, 2009, the x-ray has been noted as one of the most valuable, life-changing inventions of all time, proving just how much this simple discovery could affect the way modern medicine and technology works today. [ ¹⁴ ] References Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen - Biography, Facts and Pictures Blog Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (a.k.a., Roentgen) (1845-1923), the first Nobel winner in Physics, was the first to produce X-rays, known originally as Röntgen rays. The facts of his early biography offer hope for those who fail in their initial educational efforts. A childhood act of solidarity excluded him from many subsequent schools.

However, he went on not only to complete his education but to achieve a full professorship. His discovery of the effect of the invisible but powerful rays that revealed the bones inside bodies has made possible many elements of modern medicine. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was the child of a Dutch mother and a German father. Although born in Germany, his family, which was Catholic moved to Holland, which is largely Protestant. As a teenager, he made the judgment error of refusing to squeal on a schoolmate who had drawn a rude picture of an instructor. This act of defiance caused his expulsion and his exclusion from other gymnasia, not only in the Netherlands but in his father’s nation of Germany as well. Advertisements Education: Somehow in spite of apparently universal blacklisting, he managed to gain admission to the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, by entry exam. He studied mechanical engineering, and went on to the University of Zurich for his PhD. He went on to teach physics at a number of universities. He even considered an offer from Columbia University, an institution with a history of offering lecterns to brilliant émigrés. However, World War I broke out and he ended up remaining in Munich for the remainder of his professional career.

Research: For decades, he had been studying the effects of electrical charge on the response and appearance of vacuum tubes. The science of electricity was still relatively new, and there remained much to understand. His set-ups used relatively simple components by today’s standards. He conducted a series of experiments in 1895 in which he connected a type of vacuum tube (visualize a light bulb on steroids) called a Hittorf-Crookes tube to an early and very powerful electrostatic charge generator known as a Ruhmkorff coil, similar to what sparks a car motor to start. He was trying to reproduce a fluorescent effect observed with another type of vacuum tube called a Lenard tube. The filament inside produced a stream of electrons which was well-known, called a cathode ray. To his surprise, this produced fluorescence on a screen coated with a compound called barium platinocyanide, several feet away. This suggested to him that a hitherto unknown, and entirely invisible, effect was being produced.

We know now that the cathode ray had excited the atoms of the aluminum to produce X-rays, which in turn excited the atoms of the barium (an element which fluoresces readily) He also discovered that when his hand passed between the electrically charged vacuum tube and the barium platinocyanide coated screen, he saw his bones. He reproduced this phenomenon with his wife, causing horror. After secretly confirming his findings, he published an article titled, “On A New Kind Of Rays” (Über eine neue Art von Strahlen). This revelation and its nearly immediate application to all sorts of medical imaging earned him an honorary medical degree. His Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. Unlike the bios of some other radiation pioneers, his does not end with him giving his life for his seminal work, since he used lead shielding. He did, however, die of intestinal carcinoma.

Advertisements 12 scientists and their brilliant inventions Top 10 Scientists’ Beards How Heinrich Hertz Discovered Radio Waves Advertisements The Legendary Laureates: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen | The Physics Behind The Legendary Laureates: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen The Legendary Laureates: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Posted on by Eric Juang Ah, Wilhelm Wilhelm Wilhelm. It seems fitting that the first of our Legendary Laureates is the first person to receive the coveted Nobel Prize in Physics. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Nobel Prize is presented (almost) every year to five recipients who have made contributions benefiting mankind in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and medicine. Laureates are determined by Swedish and Norwegian committees, and prizes can be shared between winners. It was all started by Alfred Nobel, a wealthy inventor who is best known for coming up with dynamite. Upset that his legacy would be as a merchant of death, Nobel stated in his last will that his fortune would be used to fund the creation of the Nobel Prizes. Wilhelm Röntgen was on a very short list of people considered for the first Nobel Prize, and was awarded his medal in 1901.

The reason for all of this? He discovered what some called Röntgen Rays – today, we call them x-rays. To say the least, they’ve been extremely beneficial to mankind. He should have also received the Nobel Prize in Literature for that magnificent beard. The History Let’s take it back. Wilhelm was born in 1845 in Germany, the son of a draper – his father basically made and sold cloth. His parents sent him off to boarding school and later to a technical institute, where he was expelled for drawing cartoons of his teachers, which he didn’t even do. That really puts the pop-tart handgun incident to shame. Nevertheless, Röntgen somehow entered the University of Utrecht at the age of 20 to study physics, then decided that he would move to another school. He didn’t have the necessary credentials, but knew that he could get in if he just passed an exam. So, he just…did. He just tested into the University of Zurich. Even better, a mere 4 years after he started schooling, he came out with a PhD in mechanical engineering. Did they just hand out PhD’s back then? Or did Röntgen basically have the greatest academic comeback story in history?

Who knows. He spent the next years of his life jumping around through universities in Germany teaching and running physics departments. Röntgen’s first works were published right after he received his PhD. He studied the specific heat of gasses, the thermal conductivity of crystals, looked at the electrical properties of quartz, the properties of fluids under pressure – there was no stopping this guy. Eventually though, he settled on the one thing that bewildered him the most. The How In November 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was doing some work with cathode ray tubes (specifically, Crookes tubes), hollow glass tubes filled with gas at low pressure with a metal contact at each end (a negatively charged cathode, and positively charged anode). The discovery of the electron won’t happen for a couple of years, so scientists working with cathode ray tubes at the time didn’t know exactly what was happening. But we do now! When you apply high voltage, the gas inside the tube ionizes and sheds electrons. These electrons are accelerated by the electrical field present in the tube, and go flying off toward the positively charged anode at around 20% of the speed of light.

Because of the high speed, electrons often travel past the anode and slam into the glass at the end of the tube, causing it to glow or fluoresce. This happens when incoming electrons collide knock the electrons in the glass atoms up to higher energy levels. When they fall back down, they release energy in the form of light. OR DO THEY?! wilhem roentgen : definition of wilhem roentgen and synonyms of wilhem roentgen (English) Biography Early years Röntgen was born in Lennep (which is today a borough of Remscheid ) in Rhenish Prussia as the only child of a merchant and manufacturer of cloth. His mother was Charlotte Constanze Frowein of Amsterdam . In March 1848, the family moved to Apeldoorn and Wilhelm was raised in the Netherlands . He received his early education at the boarding school , Institute of Martinus Herman van Doorn , in Apeldoorn. From 1861 to 1863, he attended the ambachtsschool in Utrecht . He was expelled for refusing to reveal the identity of a classmate guilty of drawing an unflattering portrait of one of the school's teachers.

Not only was he expelled, he subsequently found that he could not gain admittance into any other Dutch or German gymnasium . [2] In 1865, he tried to attend the University of Utrecht without having the necessary credentials required for a regular student. Upon hearing that he could enter the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich (today known as the ETH Zurich ), he passed its examinations, and began studies there as a student of mechanical engineering . In 1869, he graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich ; once there, he became a favorite student of Professor August Kundt whom he followed to University of Straßburg in 1873. [3] Career In 1874 Röntgen became a lecturer at University of Straßburg . In 1875 he became a professor at the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim , Württemberg . He returned to Straßburg as a professor of physics in 1876, and in 1879, he was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Giessen .

In 1888, he obtained the physics chair at the University of Würzburg , and in 1900 at the University of Munich , by special request of the Bavarian government . Röntgen had family in Iowa in the United States and at one time planned to emigrate. Although he accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York City and had actually purchased transatlantic tickets, the outbreak of World War I changed his plans and he remained in Munich for the rest of his career.

Discovery of x-rays File:Anna Berthe Roentgen.gif Hand mit Ringen: print of Wilhelm Röntgen's first "medical" x-ray, of his wife's hand, taken on 22 December 1895 and presented to Professor Ludwig Zehnder of the Physik Institut, University of Freiburg, on 1 January 1896 [4] [5] An x-ray picture (radiograph) taken by Röntgen of Albert von Kölliker 's hand at a public lecture on 23 January 1896 [6] During 1895 Röntgen was investigating the external effects from the various types of vacuum tube equipment—apparatus from Heinrich Hertz , Johann Hittorf , William Crookes , Nikola Tesla and Philipp von Lenard —when an electrical discharge is passed through them. [7] In early November he was repeating an experiment with one of Lenard's tubes in which a thin aluminium window had been added to permit the cathode rays to exit the tube but a cardboard covering was added to protect the aluminium from damage by the strong electrostatic field that is necessary to produce the cathode rays.

He knew the cardboard covering prevented light from escaping, yet Röntgen observed that the invisible cathode rays caused a fluorescent effect on a small cardboard screen painted with barium platinocyanide when it was placed close to the aluminium window. It occurred to Röntgen that the Hittorf-Crookes tube , which had a much thicker glass wall than the Lenard tube, might also cause this fluorescent effect. In the late afternoon of 8 November 1895, Röntgen determined to test his idea. He carefully constructed a black cardboard covering similar to the one he had used on the Lenard tube. He covered the Hittorf-Crookes tube with the cardboard and attached electrodes to a Ruhmkorff coil to generate an electrostatic charge. Before setting up the barium platinocyanide screen to test his idea, Röntgen darkened the room to test the opacity of his cardboard cover. As he passed the Ruhmkorff coil charge through the tube, he determined that the cover was light-tight and turned to prepare the next step of the experiment. It was at this point that Röntgen noticed a faint shimmering from a bench a meter away from the tube.

To be sure, he tried several more discharges and saw the same shimmering each time. Striking a match, he discovered the shimmering had come from the location of the barium platinocyanide screen he had been intending to use next. Röntgen speculated that a new kind of ray might be responsible. 8 November was a Friday, so he took advantage of the weekend to repeat his experiments and make his first notes. In the following weeks he ate and slept in his laboratory as he investigated many properties of the new rays he temporarily termed X-rays , using the mathematical designation for something unknown. Although the new rays would eventually come to bear his name in many languages where they became known as Röntgen Rays, he always preferred the term X-rays. Nearly two weeks after his discovery, he took the very first picture using x-rays of his wife's hand, Anna Bertha. When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my death!" The idea that Röntgen happened to notice the barium platinocyanide screen misrepresents his investigative powers; he had planned to use the screen in the next step of his experiment and would therefore have made the discovery a few moments later.

At one point while he was investigating the ability of various materials to stop the rays, Röntgen brought a small piece of lead into position while a discharge was occurring. Röntgen thus saw the first radiographic image, his own flickering ghostly skeleton on the barium platinocyanide screen. He later reported that it was at this point that he determined to continue his experiments in secrecy, because he feared for his professional reputation if his observations were in error. Röntgen's original paper, "On A New Kind Of Rays" (Über eine neue Art von Strahlen), was published 50 days later on 28 December 1895. On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported Röntgen's discovery of a new type of radiation . Röntgen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Würzburg after his discovery. He published a total of 3 papers on X-rays between 1895 and 1897. Today, Röntgen is considered the father of diagnostic radiology , the medical specialty which uses imaging to diagnose disease.

Personal life Röntgen was married to Anna Bertha Ludwig (m. 1872, d. 1919) and had one child, Josephine Bertha Ludwig. Adopted at age 6, in 1887, she was the daughter of Anna's brother. [8] He died on 10 February 1923 from carcinoma of the intestine. [9] It is not believed his carcinoma was a result of his work with ionizing radiation because of the brief time he spent on those investigations, and because he was one of the few pioneers in the field who used protective lead shields routinely. In keeping with his will, all his personal and scientific correspondence were destroyed upon his death. [6] Honours and awards In 1901 Röntgen was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics . The award was officially "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him". Röntgen donated the monetary reward from his Nobel Prize to his university.

Like Pierre Curie several years later, Röntgen refused to take out patents related to his discovery, as he wanted the whole mankind to benefit from practical appliances (personal statement). He did not even want the rays to be named after him.[citation needed] In November 2004 IUPAC named element number 111 roentgenium (Rg) in his honour. Legacy Birthplace of Roentgen in Remscheid-Lennep Today, in Remscheid -Lennep, 40 kilometers east of Düsseldorf , is the house in which Roentgen was born in 1845 and the Deutsches Röntgen-Museum. [10] References ↑ Novelline, Robert. Squire's Fundamentals of Radiology. Harvard University Press . 5th edition. 1997. ISBN 0674833392. ↑ Friedman, Meyer ; Friedman, Gerald W. (16 November 1998). Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press . pp. 115. ISBN 0300075987.

↑ Trevert, Edward ( 1988 ). Something About X-Rays for Everybody. Madison, WI: Medical Physics Publishing Corporation. pp. 4. ISBN 0944838057. ↑ Kevles, Bettyann Holtzmann (1996). Naked to the Bone Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century. Camden, NJ: Rutgers University Press . pp. 19–22. ISBN 0813523583. ↑ Sample, Sharron (27 March 2007). "X-rays" . The electromagnetic spectrum. NASA. . Retrieved 3 December 2007. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Landwehr, Gottfried (1997). Hasse, A. ed. Röntgen centennial: X-rays in Natural and Life Sciences. Singapore: World Scientific. pp. 7–8. ISBN 981-02-3085-0.

wilhelm rontgen : definition of wilhelm rontgen and synonyms of wilhelm rontgen (English) 6 External links Biography Röntgen was born in a traditional Catholic family in Lennep, Germany as the only child of a merchant and manufacturer of cloth. His mother was Charlotte Constanze Frowein of Amsterdam . In March 1848, the family moved to Apeldoorn and Wilhelm was raised in the Netherlands . He received his early education at the boarding school , Institute of Martinus Herman van Doorn , in Apeldoorn. From 1861 to 1863, he attended the ambachtsschool in Utrecht . He was expelled for refusing to reveal the identity of a classmate guilty of drawing an unflattering portrait of one of the school's teachers. Not only was he expelled, he subsequently found that he could not gain admittance into any other Dutch or German gymnasium . [2] In 1865, he tried to attend the University of Utrecht without having the necessary credentials required for a regular student.

Upon hearing that he could enter the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich (today known as the ETH Zurich ), he passed its examinations, and began studies there as a student of mechanical engineering . In 1869, he graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich ; once there, he became a favorite student of Professor August Kundt , whom he followed to the University of Strassburg in 1873. [3] Birthplace of Roentgen in Remscheid-Lennep Career This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (November 2010) In 1874 Röntgen became a lecturer at the University of Strassburg. In 1875 he became a professor at the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim , Württemberg . He returned to Strassburg as a professor of physics in 1876, and in 1879, he was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Giessen .

In 1888, he obtained the physics chair at the University of Würzburg , and in 1900 at the University of Munich , by special request of the Bavarian government . Röntgen had family in Iowa in the United States and at one time planned to emigrate. Although he accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York City and had actually purchased transatlantic tickets, the outbreak of World War I changed his plans and he remained in Munich for the rest of his career. During 1895 Röntgen was investigating the external effects from the various types of vacuum tube equipment — apparatuses from Heinrich Hertz , Johann Hittorf , William Crookes , Nikola Tesla and Philipp von Lenard — when an electrical discharge is passed through them.[7] In early November, he was repeating an experiment with one of Lenard's tubes in which a thin aluminium window had been added to permit the cathode rays to exit the tube but a cardboard covering was added to protect the aluminium from damage by the strong electrostatic field that is necessary to produce the cathode rays.

He knew the cardboard covering prevented light from escaping, yet Röntgen observed that the invisible cathode rays caused a fluorescent effect on a small cardboard screen painted with barium platinocyanide when it was placed close to the aluminium window. It occurred to Röntgen that the Hittorf-Crookes tube , which had a much thicker glass wall than the Lenard tube , might also cause this fluorescent effect . In the late afternoon of 8 November 1895, Röntgen determined to test his idea. He carefully constructed a black cardboard covering similar to the one he had used on the Lenard tube. He covered the Hittorf-Crookes tube with the cardboard and attached electrodes to a Ruhmkorff coil to generate an electrostatic charge. Before setting up the barium platinocyanide screen to test his idea, Röntgen darkened the room to test the opacity of his cardboard cover. As he passed the Ruhmkorff coil charge through the tube, he determined that the cover was light-tight and turned to prepare the next step of the experiment.

It was at this point that Röntgen noticed a faint shimmering from a bench a few feet away from the tube. To be sure, he tried several more discharges and saw the same shimmering each time. Striking a match, he discovered the shimmering had come from the location of the barium platinocyanide screen he had been intending to use next. Röntgen speculated that a new kind of ray might be responsible. 8 November was a Friday, so he took advantage of the weekend to repeat his experiments and make his first notes. In the following weeks he ate and slept in his laboratory as he investigated many properties of the new rays he temporarily termed "X-rays", using the mathematical designation for something unknown. Although the new rays would eventually come to bear his name in many languages as "Röntgen Rays" (and the associated X-ray radiograms as "Röntgenograms"), he always preferred the term X-rays. Nearly two weeks after his discovery, he took the very first picture using X-rays of his wife's hand, Anna Bertha.

When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my death!" [4] The idea that Röntgen noticed the shimmering of the barium platinocyanide screen simply through good fortune misrepresents his investigative powers; he had planned to use the screen in the next step of his experiment and would therefore have made the discovery a few moments later regardless. At one point while he was investigating the ability of various materials to stop the rays, Röntgen brought a small piece of lead into position while a discharge was occurring. Röntgen thus saw the first radiographic image, his own flickering ghostly skeleton on the barium platinocyanide screen. He later reported that it was at this point that he determined to continue his experiments in secrecy, because he feared for his professional reputation if his observations were in error. Röntgen's original paper, "On A New Kind Of Rays" (Über eine neue Art von Strahlen), was published on 28 December 1895. On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported Röntgen's discovery of a new type of radiation.

Röntgen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Würzburg after his discovery. He published a total of three papers on X-rays between 1895 and 1897. Today, Röntgen is considered the father of diagnostic radiology, the medical specialty which uses imaging to diagnose disease. Personal life Grave of Wilhelm Röntgen at Alter Friedhof (old cemetery) in Gießen Röntgen was married to Anna Bertha Ludwig (m. 1872, d. 1919) and had one child, Josephine Bertha Ludwig. Adopted at age 6, in 1887, she was the daughter of Anna's brother. [5] Röntgen died on 10 February 1923 from carcinoma of the intestine. [6] It is not believed his carcinoma was a result of his work with ionizing radiation because of the brief time he spent on those investigations, and because he was one of the few pioneers in the field who used protective lead shields routinely.

[4] Rontgen did not take patents out on his discoveries, and donated the money for his Nobel prize to the University of Wurzburg. With the inflation following World War I, Rontgen fell into bankruptcy later in life, spending his final years at his country home at Weilheim , near Munich. [7] In keeping with his will, all his personal and scientific correspondence were destroyed upon his death. [4] Honours and awards In 1901 Röntgen was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics . The award was officially "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him". Röntgen donated the monetary reward from his Nobel Prize to his university. Like Pierre Curie , Röntgen refused to take out patents related to his discovery, as he wanted mankind as a whole to benefit from practical applications of the same (personal statement). He did not even want the rays to be named after him.[ citation needed ] In November 2004 IUPAC named element number 111 Roentgenium (Rg) in his honour. IUPAP also adopted the name in November 2011.

Legacy Today, in Remscheid -Lennep, 40 kilometers east of Düsseldorf , the house in which Roentgen was born in 1845 is the Deutsches Röntgen-Museum. [8] In many languages, Röntgen's name (or a local linguistic derivative) is used to refer to radiology and its products instead of the term "X-ray", which Röntgen himself coined, for example Japanese "rentogen", the Lithuanian "rentgeno", the Hebrew "rentgen", the Serbo-Croatian "rentgen", and Turkish "röntgen". The Philips Medical System diagnostic radiography research and development division in Hamburg DE is on Röntgenstrasse (Röntgen Street). See also References ^ Novelline, Robert. Squire's Fundamentals of Radiology. Harvard University Press . 5th edition. 1997. ISBN 0-674-83339-2 p. 1. ^ Friedman, Meyer ; Friedland, Gerald W. (16 November 1998). Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press . p.

115. ISBN 0-300-07598-7 . ^ Trevert, Edward (1988). Something About X-Rays for Everybody. Madison, WI: Medical Physics Publishing Corporation. p. 4. ISBN 0-944838-05-7 . ^ a b c Landwehr, Gottfried (1997). Hasse, A. ed. Röntgen centennial: X-rays in Natural and Life Sciences. Singapore: World Scientific. pp. 7–8. ISBN 981-02-3085-0 . ^ Glasser (1933: 63) ^ Glasser, Otto (1933). Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the Early History of the Roentgen Rays. London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd. p. 305. OCLC 220696336 . ^ Nitske, Robert W., The Life of W. C. Röntgen, Discoverer of the X-Ray, University of Arizona Press, 1971.

Wilhelm Röntgen - Biography, Facts and Pictures Blog Wilhelm Röntgen The German physicist, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was the first person to systematically produce and detect electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as x-rays or Röntgen rays. His discovery of x-rays was a great revolution in the fields of physics and medicine and electrified the general public. It also earned him the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1896 and the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. He is also known for his discoveries in mechanics, heat, and electricity. Advertisements Early Life and Career: Röntgen was born on March 27, 1845, at Lennep in the Lower Rhine Province of Germany. He was the only child of a merchant and cloth manufacturer. Röntgen was brought up in Netherlands after he and his family moved to Apeldoorn in 1848. Here he first received his early education at the Institute of Martinus Herman van Doorn, a boarding school and in 1861 attended the Utrecht Technical School.

Unfortunately in 1863 he was expelled unfairly from his school after being accused of a prank another student had committed. Even though Röntgen did not seem to be especially gifted in his schoolwork, he was good at building mechanical objects, a talent that enabled him to build many of his own experimental devices in his later life. He then entered the University of Utrecht in 1865 to study physics without having the necessary credentials required for a regular student. In 1869, he earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Zurich. Here he attended lectures by the noted physicist Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius and also worked in the laboratory of Kundt. As soon as he completed his graduation he was appointed assistant to Kundt and went with him to Würzburg in the same year, and three years later to Strasbourg. In 1874 he was appointed as a lecturer at Strasbourg University and in 1875 served as a professor in the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim in Württemberg. In 1876 he returned to Strasbourg as Professor of Physics. Three years later he accepted the invitation to the Chair of Physics in the University of Giessen.

In 1888, he obtained the same position at the University of Würzburg, and in 1900 at the University of Munich. Even though he accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York City but due to the occurrence of World War I, Röntgen changed his plans and remained in Munich for the rest of his career. Discovery of X-rays: During 1895 Röntgen carried out his investigations on the phenomenon of cathode rays. Accidently he put a piece of cardboard covered with fluorescent mineral near the experimental set and noticed it glowing in the dark when the source of cathode rays was turned on. Roentgen immediately initiated an experiment aimed at investigation of the phenomenon. He found that that if vacuum tube, used for experiments with cathode rays, was covered tightly with thin, black cardboard and placed in a darkened room, bright glow was observed during each discharge on a screen covered with fluorescent barium platinum cyanide (placed near the device). He realised that the fluorescence was caused by an agent which could infiltrate from within the vacuum tube through dark cardboard (impermeable to visible or ultraviolet radiation) to the outside of the set. He termed this agent as x-rays.

Death: The Discovery of X-Rays The Discovery of X-Rays After reading this section you will be able to do the following: Summarize how Roentgen discovered the X-ray. Discuss the impact Roentgen's discovery had on the world at that time (1895), and then compare it to the impact it still has today. First, the discovery of X-rays In late 1895, a German physicist, W. C. Roentgen was working with a cathode ray tube in his laboratory. He was working with tubes similar to our fluorescent light bulbs. He evacuated the tube of all air, filled it with a special gas, and passed a high electric voltage through it. When he did this, the tube would produce a fluorescent glow. Roentgen shielded the tube with heavy black paper, and found that a green colored fluorescent light could be seen coming from a screen setting a few feet away from the tube. He realized that he had produced a previously unknown "invisible light," or ray, that was being emitted from the tube; a ray that was capable of passing through the heavy paper covering the tube.

Through additional experiments, he also found that the new ray would pass through most substances casting shadows of solid objects on pieces of film. He named the new ray X-ray, because in mathematics "X" is used to indicated the unknown quantity. In his discovery Roentgen found that the X-ray would pass through the tissue of humans leaving the bones and metals visible. One of RoentgenÂs first experiments late in 1895 was a film of his wife Bertha's hand with a ring on her finger (shown below on right). The news of RoentgenÂs discovery spread quickly throughout the world. Scientists everywhere could duplicate his experiment because the cathode tube was very well known during this period. In early 1896, X-rays were being utilized clinically in the United States for such things as bone fractures and gun shot wounds. Take a look at these early x-rays. ---------- X-rays were discovered by William Roentgen while experimenting with a cathode radiation .

Question: Roentgen Rays, named after Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, are better known by what name?
Answer: X-Rays